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Mom who did 124 mph with kids in car sent to jail

The Associated Press

Posted:
08/06/2014 05:10:09 AM MDT

Updated:
08/06/2014 05:32:25 AM MDT

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A Maine mother busted for driving 124 mph with her two children in the car in April has been sentenced to six months in jail, and police say she's now facing a driving under the influence charge.

Twenty-six-year-old Cheryl Gilson of Cornish was sentenced Monday in Portland District Court. She pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of a child and other charges.

A state trooper stopped Gilson in Portland in April after clocking her driving 124 mph on the Maine Turnpike in Saco. Authorities say her children, ages 3 and 5, were in the car, along with three young men.

Scarborough police charged Gilson with operating under the influence with a 6-year-old girl in her car three weeks ago. It's not clear if the child is related to Gilson.

Original sound of Japan emperor's war-end speech released

By Mari Yamaguchi Associated Press

Posted:
08/01/2015 09:58:01 AM MDT

Updated:
08/01/2015 03:28:35 PM MDT

Click photo to enlarge

In this Aug. 15, 1945 photo, Japanese people lower their head toward the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, as Emperor Hirohito announced on radio that Japan was defeated in the World War II. The original recording of Japan's Emperor Hirohito's war-ending speech has come back to life in digital form. The original sound was released Saturday, Aug. 1, 2015 by the Imperial Household Agency in digital format, ahead of the 70th anniversary of the speech and the war's end. (Kyodo New via AP) JAPAN OUT, CREDIT MANDATORY

On Saturday, the Imperial Household Agency released the digital version of the original sound ahead of the 70th anniversary of the speech and the war's end. In it, the emperor's voice appears clearer, slightly higher and more intense, but, Japanese today would still have trouble understanding the arcane language used by Hirohito.

This photo provided by the Imperial Household Agency of Japan on Saturday, Aug. 1, 2015, shows a container and the original recording of Japan's Emperor Hirohito's war-ending speech, in Tokyo. The original sound was released Saturday by the Imperial Household Agency in digital format, ahead of the 70th anniversary of the speech and the war's end. (Imperial Household Agency of Japan via AP) (AP)

"The language was extremely difficult," said Tomie Kondo, 92, who listened to the 1945 broadcast in a monitoring room at public broadcaster NHK, where she worked as a newscaster. "It's well written if you read it, but I'm afraid not many people understood what he said."

"Poor reception and sound quality of the radio made it even worse," she said. "I heard some people even thought they were supposed to fight even more. I think the speech would be incomprehensible to young people today."

Every Japanese knows a part of the speech where Hirohito refers to his resolve for peace by "enduring the unendurable and suffering what is insufferable," a phrase repeatedly used in news and dramas about the war.

When people heard that part 70 years ago, they understood the situation, Kondo says. But the rest is little known, largely because the text Hirohito read was deliberately written in arcane language making him sound authoritative and convincing as he sought people's understanding about Japan's surrender.

Amid growing concern among many Japanese over nationalist Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's push to expand Japan's military role, the current Emperor Akihito is increasingly seen as liberal and pacifist, and the effort by his father, Hirohito, to end the war has captured national attention.

This photo provided by the Imperial Household Agency of Japan on Saturday, Aug. 1, 2015, shows the original recording of late emperor Hirohito's war-ending speech in Tokyo. The original sound was released Saturday by the Imperial Household Agency in digital format, ahead of the 70th anniversary of the speech and the war's end. (Imperial Household Agency of Japan via AP) (AP)

Speaking in unique intonation that drops at the end of sentences, Hirohito opens his 1945 address with Japan's decision to accept the condition of surrender. He also expresses "the deepest sense of regret" to Asian countries that cooperated with Japan to gain "emancipation" from Western colonization.

Japan itself colonized the Korean Peninsula and occupied parts of China, often brutally, before and during World War II.

Hirohito also laments devastation caused by "a new and most cruel bomb" dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and asks everyone to stay calm while helping to reconstruct the country.

Its significance is that Hirohito, who at the time was considered a living deity, made the address, said Takahisa Furukawa, a historian at Nihon University in Tokyo.

This photo provided by the Imperial Household Agency of Japan on Saturday, Aug. 1, 2015, shows one of the original recording of Japan's Emperor Hirohito's war-ending speech in Tokyo. The original sound was released Saturday by the Imperial Household Agency in digital format, ahead of the 70th anniversary of the speech and the war's end. (Imperial Household Agency of Japan via AP) (AP)

"What's most important is the emperor reached out to the people to tell them that they had to surrender and end the war," he said. "The speech is a reminder of what it took to end the wrong war."

On the eve of the announcement, Hirohito met with top government officials to approve Japan's surrender inside a bunker dug at the palace compound.

Amid fear of violent protest by army officials refusing to end the war, the recording of Hirohito's announcement was made secretly. NHK technicians were quietly called in for the recording. At almost midnight, Hirohito appeared in his formal military uniform, and read the statement into the microphone, twice.

A group of young army officers stormed into the palace in a failed attempt to steal the records and block the surrender speech, but palace officials desperately protected the records, which were safely delivered to NHK for radio transmission the next day.

The drama of the last two days of the war leading to Hirohito's radio address was made into a film, "Japan's Longest Day," in 1967, and its remake will hit Japanese theaters on Aug. 8.

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Follow Mari Yamaguchi at twitter.com/mariyamaguchi

This photo provided by the Imperial Household Agency of Japan on Saturday, Aug. 1, 2015, shows a container, left, the original recording of late emperor Hirohito's war-ending speech and another after-war address, in Tokyo. The original sound was released Saturday by the Imperial Household Agency in digital format, ahead of the 70th anniversary of the speech and the war's end. (Imperial Household Agency of Japan via AP) (AP)

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